Mendocino County v. Bank of Mendocino

— In October, 1887, the board of supervisors of Mendocino County passed an ordinance providing for the payment of licenses by persons, firms, and corporations carrying on various kinds of business in *256 that county, and, among others, the business of banking and loaning money at interest, and also providing that the district attorney should commence suit, in the name of the county, to recover the license tax, against any one required but refusing to pay the same, and that, in case of recovery by the plaintiff, twenty-five dollars damages should be added to the judgment, to be collected from the defendant. At the time the ordinance was passed, and thereafter, the defendant was engaged in the business of banking and loaning money at interest in the county, but refused to pay the license tax required in such case, and thereupon this action was commenced in a justice’s court to recover the same with the penalty. The defendant interposed a general demurrer to the complaint, which was overruled, and then answered. By its answer, which was verified, it alleged that the board of supervisors had no right or power to levy, assess, or collect a license from defendant for transacting its…